"Sit there for a second!" Tao Ru tossed Shu He towards a chair where he happily took a seat.
"So who was that man?" He asked, ignoring the treatment he was receiving.
"Him?" She grunted "He's just an annoying bastard that keeps sticking close to me" she shrugged.
"You sounded awfully close though" Shu He replied while starting to look around the room, it was filled with desks covered in books and appliances, a complete mess was an understatement if you were to describe it.
"As if! He's a Tier 2 alchemist like me, but he always acts like he's better!".
'So it's a rivalry' He thought as he brushed some books that were strewn across the desk near him, a thick layer of dust was left on his hand as he grimaced, swiping his hand so it fell off.
"It's a bit dirty in here, isn't it?"
"I just haven't had time to run the cleaning formation! What do you care, are you my mom or something?!" She yelled back while running back and forth, it seemed like she was carrying ingredients out of a room next door along with texts and books.
"There's such a convenient thing?" Shu He asked with surprise, looking around the room to see if he could spot the controls for it, but the place was such a mess he couldn't tell where a single thing was.
"All these rooms have it! Wait, never mind that-" She slammed down a pile of books before glaring at him "Why didn't you knock! I got interrupted because of that damn familiar!".
"I DID" Shu He glared at the older woman, not caring for seniority in the slightest.
"You should have knocked harder-"
"I DID, loud enough that Senior He came out to check what the noise was! Are you sure you don't need your ears checked?" He replied, doubtfully before she could speak any more.
"…So that's why he was there…" Tao Ru's expression lightened up like she had an epiphany, before it turned black again "Why are you so rude to me!".
"Because you haven't shown anything worthy of respect yet!" Shu He replied bluntly while crossing his arms.
This woman really did test his patience, she was a walking disaster.
The moment they met she was rude to him!
Tao Ru frowned, but didn't reply for a moment, after a minute her expression changed.
"Fine, then I'll show you why you should respect me!" She declared proudly before turning around "Come on in, it's ready".
Shu He, slightly surprised by her change of pace, followed along.
'I wonder if someone else has said something similar to her before?' He pondered as he entered the room, after they had entered a stone door closed behind him and he immediately noticed how quiet it had gotten, the ambient noise that was normally there was completely gone.
"A soundproof room?"
Tao Ru nodded slightly "It's also incredibly durable and impact resistant".
'No wonder she didn't hear me knocking on the door… wait no that's not right' He had his doubts.
"If it's soundproof, why did you say I should have knocked?".
She paused her steps and opened her mouth slightly before reluctantly speaking "The formation sends the knocks from the door through to here…"
'So you just ignored it because you were too busy…' he sighed.
Around the room were a few stone desks, except one notable thing was that the surfaces were not made of normal stone but of clear jade, likely to minimise impurities during preparation.
In the centre of the room was a large machine looking thing, of course this was the Alchemy Furnace that he had seen in the illustration before, but…
"This looks a bit different from what I saw in that scroll you gave me…" he said while pointing at it.
"Of course, contents of that scroll were made god knows how many years ago, this here is a modular design that is superior to that one" She explained "Certain pills may require different attachments to improve the success of refinement, more funnels, storage units, different support formations and such, before it had to be made as one but since modular furnaces became a thing it's been far easier".
"So it's a recent invention?"
"If you call nearly a 1000 years recent, yes".
"Wow…" She He replied in surprise, she had spoken like she had been there to see the change, so he had expected 100 or so years at most.
"You're not over 1000 years old are you?"
"OF COURSE NOT! I'm a fine young lady, thank you." She pouted as she placed some ingredients on the desk in front of her.
'It sounds like she's deflecting…' He thought as he began to doubt her age.
"Now, come here and watch closely".
Shu He did as he was told, he looked on the table and saw three items.
A pure white leaf, a crystal-like flower, and a red root.
"Do you know these ingredients?" She asked.
"That's the Remidial Tree Leaf" he pointed to the white leaf, he'd be stupid to forget something he'd used in his exam a mere few days ack.
"The Crystal-root flower…" His first ever spiritual material he had harvested, one he won't ever forget.
He then looked at the crimson root, he hadn't seen it before in person but he had been browsing a guide on spiritual materials for a while now, and he vaguely remembers something similar.
"Is this a Crimson Ginseng?"
"Correct, I'm surprised you got them all, a lot of disciples don't bother learning until they can be to concoct" Tao Ru nodded.
"These three are all Low Mortal grade materials, thus they're suitable for a Tier 1 to Tier 3 pill, today I'll show you how to make the Tier 1 version".
"Eh? You can use the same ingredients for a Tier 3 version?" He asked with surprise.
"Not quite, each increase in tier requires additional materials to enhance the properties, the pill we'll be making is the Detox Pill, which is the Tier 1 version, but the Tier 2 is called the High Detox Pill and the Tier 3, the Extreme Detox Pill, it's a great pill to learn with because of the three tiers".
Shu He nodded slightly to show he understood what she said.
'So pills can be upgraded in tier with the right ingredients… interesting'.
"Now then, I'll show you my extraction process, watch how an actual alchemist works, watch closely!".
Shu He activated his 'sight' so he wouldn't miss a single thing as Tao Ru began to place her hands over the ingredients and then-.
She swiped them across all three, her Alchemic Qi entered the three items like it had been injected and then at breakneck speed its pale green aura encompassed the ingredients whole before three seconds had even passed, and then in the next moment-
*Whoosh*
The ingredients disappeared leaving behind dust, in their place was three lights, three different essences!
"Fast!" Shu He couldn't help but exclaim.
The three essences moved through the air, surrounding Tao Ru's fingertip as they began to rotate like a carrousel around it.
"See? A true alchemist is on another level" She smirked slightly.
Shu He nodded; he had seen that clearly now.
"Next-" She walked on over to the large round furnace.
"You will want to use these insertion tubes to store the essence before starting" She detached three test tube like jade containers and put the essence in each one of them before putting it back on the furnace.
"Although experienced alchemists can forsake this and just place the essence directly in the main chamber, for beginners it's easier to do this while learning as it allows for more fine control over the beginning of the procedure".
"Next you will want to store the Pill Sealing Formula in the upper chamber, I expect you remember from the scroll what this is for, right?" She sail while holding a small vial of white powder.
Shu He nodded "It's the casing for the pill".
"Yup, in the past alchemists had to throw the formula in at the end which could cause a massive mess and increased potential for failures, the extra chamber made it far easier." She said as she opened up the upper chamber and poured the powder in.
'This really feels like a school science experiment rather than something like alchemy' He couldn't help but think.
"Now then, that's preparations for this pill complete; This pill is rather simple so that's the extent of prep, but a lot of other pills require far more materials and assistance devices."
She walked up to the alchemy furnace and placed her hands on two large handle like formations.
"Come over here, place your hands on that panel and channel your Qi in" She shifted her head in the direction of a panel on the side of the furnace.
Shu He did as he was told and injected his Qi, as he did he felt a weird sensation enter his mind, as he focused on it he felt like he saw something.
'It's black?' He frowned.
"What you're seeing is inside the furnace, obviously there's nothing right now so it's black but you'll see in detail the process when we begin."
"Ah! That's convenient… I was wondering how you'd show me it".
"Right, It's great for teaching like this". She nodded in agreement before her expression relaxed.
"Then, I'm going to start; I'll try to slow down so you can see as much as possible to pay attention!".
"Got it" His closed his eyes and activated his 'sight', it seems that thanks to the pre-established qi connected he could see into the thick furnace easily, granting an even better view of the process.
"Then- I'm beginning!"
Tao Ru's alchemic Qi surged through the furnace, filling the insides like flames in an oven, it reached through the tubes and contacted with the three essences that were then dragged into the main chamber where they floated calmly.
"The first of three steps – Synthesis!"
The Alchemic Qi surged and wrapped the three essences tightly until they were small dots of three colours, then like they were being wrung with a rolling pin a small thread of each essence began extending towards the centre of the furnace, they drifted peacefully until the moment they contacted-
*DOOooom*
There was a effect like a small bang as the essences seemed to try to repel each-other, yet the surrounding Alchemic Qi muffled it and the furnace contained it, the thread of essences didn't stop as they kept feeding into each-other despite the rejection, the Alchemic Qi was like an almighty force overturning the rejection as a bright multi-coloured light began forming in the centre.
It began to grow, more and more, after a full five minutes the last of the essence had turned in to a thread and became part of the centre light.
"Complete, the three essences have merged to become the pill essence."
"Next up is the second step – Imbuement, a lot of disciples struggle with this the most as it is the step that relies most on the alchemist, you need to imbue a will into your Qi, and it needs to be the simplest possible or the pill will be a dud, this requires a clear mind! For the Detox Pill it's something along the lines of 'Cleanse the body of poisons, purify the blood' but it will differ between alchemists, you need to find what works for you".
Her eyes seemed to turn blank at that moment as the Qi inside the furnace began to shift weirdly, it tussled and nudged the pill essence until it began to move oddly.
Like before, essence began to turn in to a thread of itself, but unlike before there wasn't a single thread but rather hundreds that began rising in the air, they rose and then began twisting and shifting before crossing and knitting with one another forming a complex lattice that eventually began to form a sphere.
It was oddly beautiful, at first it looked like an utter mess like a ball of string that had gotten tangled but the more Shu He looked the more he found it pleasing to look at, each 'string' had purpose and its form was optimised by the will.
After 20 minutes had passed, a beautiful sphere was created, and in the last moment there was a odd shockwave as 'something' detached itself from the sphere.
"The last part of that process is detaching your will from the Essence, 'will' normally would dissipate over time inside of Qi and objects, but when the sealing is performed it would no longer dissipate, if the will is left in a pill it could cause Qi rejection in whoever eats it."
Shu He didn't reply as he was focused on the glowing sphere, he wasn't able to fully grasp what he saw just now, but he understood it was a 'learn by doing' kind of thing.
"After these two processes, the final process can be done".
"The Third Step – Sealing"
As Shu He watched on, the embryonic pill began moving upwards as it entered the upper chamber, there awaited the pill formula that was placed in a circular groove around the chamber.
In the next moment, small strings of the powder began heading towards the pill slowly, the moment it reached pill a small surge of Qi entered it, creating a small white fraction of a shell, the white string didn't disappear as it began moving and each area it passed became covered In the same white shell.
It seemed like a delicate process, the pills surface was smooth so a slight bump or misplacement of the shell can ruin it, and if the sealing formula intersected with the essence it would disturb the delicate balance it had achieved.
This step took another 10 minutes, after the final piece of sealing shell was placed a small shockwave impacted the sides of the furnace with the pill at the centre as the Alchemic Qi was carefully controlled to push against it, the shell turned from a dull white to a shiny smooth white in a few seconds.
After that, nothing.
The pill slowly drifted downwards before it landed on a small grove in the bottom of the furnace.
"And that's how to make a pill" Tao Ru looked over to Shu He who was still looking at the white sphere in the centre of the furnace with entranced eyes with a smile.
"That… was quite fast" Shu He commented.
Tao Ru opened the furnace and pulled out the pill from inside, it was beautifully smooth and white like a pure marble.
"That's not even my fastest, I can easily do it under 10 minutes" She bragged.
"10… in that time I could only do 2 extractions…" Shu He finally realised just how wide the gap was between them.
"Of course! You haven't even made a pill yet, don't compare yourself to me who's a Tier 2 alchemist, what are you, an idiot?".
"Right, consider me humbled". He lifted his arms in surrender.
"Good!" She nodded happily.
"Now then, your turn, I'm going to hammer the basics in to you so I can return to my research before a month is up!" She stated, a desperate grin plastered on her face.
"Wait, a month?! I was going to-" But before Shu He could speak further she placed a hand over his mouth.
"No complaints! I've be tasked with teaching you so I'm gonna' do that so I can be free again, even if you break!" He grin had twisted into an evil smile.
Shu He realised there wasn't any way out of this one seeing how desperate she was, so he prepared mentally prepared himself for a crash course in alchemy.